Retail Steam Machine Prototype

iBuyPower revealed their own prototype box for their own upcoming Steam Machine. Keep in mind that various manufacturers will be allowed to make their own devices and iBuyPower is one of them. Their unit will go on sale next year for $499 (USD), the same price as an Xbox One.

Included will be a multicore AMD CPU, AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 500GB hard drive. The unit itself is smaller than an Xbox One but larger than a PS4. The power supply is included inside the case and appears to come in a glossy white with a customizable light bar running across the middle of the unit. Included will be a Steam Controller and the system itself will run the Linux-based Steam OS from Valve.The company claims that the hardware will have no problems running existing Steam Linux games at 1080p and 60fps. As this is merely a prototype and since the release is still in 2014, some details and specs are liable to be changed.

iBuyPower states that it actually has two models, codenamed Gordon and Freeman, in the works. The two consoles are identical, save for the light bar round the middle -- one model's is clear, while the other's is black when not illuminated. And, while the company wouldn't tell us about the boxes' internals, it did confirm that the hardware will run all Steam titles in 1080p resolution at 60fps. Not as much info as we'd like to know, but still, it's good to see hints of what we'll see from Steam Machines when they hit the market -- though we'll likely have to wait until CES to see them in action.

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#4711168 Posted on: 11/26/2013 01:01 PM
I have a Steam machine that's not a prototype. I use it everyday to look at pictures of cats and play video games.

miffywiffy
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#4711169 Posted on: 11/26/2013 01:04 PM
I hope they drop this Steam console ****, we play on Steam because we love PCs, if we wanted consoles we would buy them. All this does is takes the best thing about the PC away and will probably bring in a whole new market of noobs to ruin our online games. Having a barrier to entry is good, it is why subscription based MMOs always have better communities than F2P, you weed out the noobs.

Soon Steam will turn PC gaming into Android and the whole platform will be ruined.

ClexRex
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#4711187 Posted on: 11/26/2013 01:30 PM
I hope they drop this Steam console ****, we play on Steam because we love PCs, if we wanted consoles we would buy them. All this does is takes the best thing about the PC away and will probably bring in a whole new market of noobs to ruin our online games. Having a barrier to entry is good, it is why subscription based MMOs always have better communities than F2P, you weed out the noobs.

Soon Steam will turn PC gaming into Android and the whole platform will be ruined.

I agree....I don't understand this at all....they cant really expect to make money on these...I mean people will just buy console or a descent PC?

Im not a business consultant or anything...but I sure could find a several more innovative idea...just give me sometime...

This however like stated above is a step backwards imo for PC gaming...

Solfaur
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#4711204 Posted on: 11/26/2013 01:53 PM
If they make it in Steam colors/decals with that led beeing whatever color the user wants it to be, it will look really, really neat.

Jahooba
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#4711216 Posted on: 11/26/2013 02:10 PM
The genius of a SteamBox console is that the price of new and more powerful hardware will drop as time goes on.

It won't be advantageous to buy a SteamBox for a couple more years, when buying one at $500 gives you far more power than a console by Microsoft or Sony.

By the time the XBone and Playstation 4 hit the end of their life-cycle the SteamBox should have hardware that is an order of magnitude more powerful at that same $500 price point.

But, none of that matters if the PC gaming market falls flat because developers ignore it in favor of consoles. It's way too early to tell which way this will all swing, but I hope the SteamBox fosters constructive competition in the industry.

PhoBos82
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#4711297 Posted on: 11/26/2013 04:08 PM
This is what the Xbox one should have looked like. Whoever works in the design department at Microsoft needs to be fired

Asgardi
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#4711321 Posted on: 11/26/2013 04:42 PM
By the time the XBone and Playstation 4 hit the end of their life-cycle the SteamBox should have hardware that is an order of magnitude more powerful at that same $500 price point.

But, none of that matters if the PC gaming market falls flat because developers ignore it in favor of consoles. It's way too early to tell which way this will all swing, but I hope the SteamBox fosters constructive competition in the industry.

You forget that price of X1 and PS4 will come down over time just like now. Sony is selling PS4 with zero profit so if Valve wants to do anything more powerful at the same price point they just cannot. They cannot afford to make loss with the devices.

SteamBox is just a result of Gabe's rage over MS for entering the apps market. But only thing I can see SteamBox doing is to further fragment PC gaming which will be good for consoles and Valve just ending up with niche console sales and loosing the current PC market it has.

If MS is smart they will merge W8 and XBOX gaming and easily create the biggest gaming platform. But we all know MS is so stupid these days

Iggyblack
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#4711386 Posted on: 11/26/2013 05:55 PM
You guys are forgetting that valve is probably targetting those people that would like a pc, but think they are too expensive. aka people who buy HP pc's in best buy and the likes.

Not to mention, people who really aren't in computers would have to research a lot to try and build a gaming pc for $500 dollars, and then would have no clue how to piece together, get it running etc..

Think of this as a cheap, friendly step for those who want to play on pc but either think pc costs too much or think it's too complicated to get standalone parts and put it all together.

I for one, love the steambox idea, as this means 13+ year old kids can finally start playing more pc games, and hopefully this bring more awareness and popularity to the pc back.

gUNN1993
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#4711388 Posted on: 11/26/2013 05:55 PM

If MS is smart they will merge W8 and XBOX gaming and easily create the biggest gaming platform. But we all know MS is so stupid these days

Yeah lets merge windows 8 and Xbox gaming, GFWL 2.0 ..... that would be a great idea .....

I remember someone saying something about horrible warnings.

Extraordinary
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#4711395 Posted on: 11/26/2013 06:01 PM
Is the green one when it's working, and the other one the RSoD (Red Stripe of Death) ?

Cyberdyne
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#4711423 Posted on: 11/26/2013 06:42 PM
I'm not sure I understand the opposition to this. From what I can tell, this will not effect PC as it stands at all. And if we are lucky, those sick of the typical console experience that want a easy to use open gaming machine will get a steam box. It may be a small change, but I can only see it helping PC gaming as it will no longer be exclusive to people tech-savvy enough (I'm sure we have all had a hand full of games that required a few hours of googleing to get working correctly). $500 is also a spot on price.

kevnb
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#4711426 Posted on: 11/26/2013 06:45 PM
thats really close to the same spec that the current consoles have, with enough developer support this could be huge. Open source always wins in the end.

MadGizmo
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#4711461 Posted on: 11/26/2013 07:20 PM
You guys are forgetting that valve is probably targetting those people that would like a pc, but think they are too expensive. aka people who buy HP pc's in best buy and the likes.

Not to mention, people who really aren't in computers would have to research a lot to try and build a gaming pc for $500 dollars, and then would have no clue how to piece together, get it running etc..

Think of this as a cheap, friendly step for those who want to play on pc but either think pc costs too much or think it's too complicated to get standalone parts and put it all together.

I for one, love the steambox idea, as this means 13+ year old kids can finally start playing more pc games, and hopefully this bring more awareness and popularity to the pc back.
The difference between this and a PC is that the box has SteamOS pre-installed and one can only stream Windows games through it, because it can't run them by itself. Meaning, you still need another PC for those.

Govinda
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#4711465 Posted on: 11/26/2013 07:26 PM
Steam will soon be obsolite, as soon as Microsoft starts to distribute games through Windows Store (at least I think that's what is called). Mantle could be a game changer for linux, but as I remember so was 3Dfx Glide. And what games were there for linux?

Redemption80
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#4711528 Posted on: 11/26/2013 08:22 PM
There are a few reasons why people are cynical about this.

The main one is that nearly every PC gamer would stick with their present way of gaming, while console gamers would only consider a Steambox if it had a good amount of SteamOS exclusive games.

It's hard to see who the market is.

Hardcore PC gamers hate the idea dye to the fact they are worried it could be a success and those who game on monitors and use mouse/kb are ignored in favour of the big TV UI and game pad controls.

Casuals will also end up feeling ripped off by these systems when they find out the majority of past and present games don't work.